The conventional prior art golf ball usually includes a flexible (usually rubber) core member and a relatively hard (usually plastic) cover portion disposed over the flexible core member.
One problem with the conventional prior art golf ball is that it cannot be readily seen in the dark. Often, golfers seeking to finish a round of golf before darkness will try to rush through the last few holes in order to complete the round. In doing this, golfers will usually become frustrated because their rushed shots are generally not as good as their carefully stroked and planned shots. Also, golf balls are often lost because of darkness during attempts by golfers to finish their rounds.
One attempt to deal with this problem of playing golf at dark has been the development of a golf ball which had a hole drilled through the ball for the insertion therein of glow type material which made the golf ball easier to see at dusk or even during darkness. U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,055 discloses this prior golf ball with a hole therethrough.
Various problems are associated with this type of a golf ball. First of all, a golfer usually has to use more than one of these glow type material inserts for this type of golf ball to fully complete 18 holes of golf. Furthermore, this type of golf ball is structurally changed thereby eliminating any chance of being approved by the U.S.G.A. (United States Golf Association) which is the official group that rules on which golf balls are acceptable as official golf balls to be used in golf tournaments. Also, people using this prior golf ball have indicated that they cannot hit the ball as far as conventional golf balls.
A number of other, non-related objects (not golf balls) have had phosphorescent materials applied such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,551 covering a hollow, expanded ball, but not a golf ball.
Thus, a definite need existed for a glow-in-the-dark or luminescent golf ball that could be approved by the U.S.G.A., and that can be hit as far as conventional golf balls, but which would be extremely useful to golfers either seeking to finish their golf play at dusk, or for playing at night (with some exterior golf course lights to outline the general layout of the golf course including any ponds, trees, bushes, etc. to avoid injury to the golfer), or for playing golf where there are out of bound areas with relatively tall grass making normal (non-glowing) golf balls difficult to see, or for playing golf near water hazards such as small ponds that can conceal the location in the water of (non-glowing) golf balls, but might reveal the location of a glowing type golf ball.